The World around the Old Testament: The People and Places of the Ancient Near East

Leading Experts Introduce the People and Contexts of the Old Testament.

What people groups interacted with ancient Israel? Who were the Hurrians and why do they matter? What do we know about the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and others?

In this up-to-date volume, leading experts introduce the peoples and places of the world around the Old Testament, providing students with a fresh exploration of the ancient Near East. The contributors offer comprehensive orientations to the main cultures and people groups that surrounded ancient Israel in the wider ancient Near East, including not only Mesopotamia and the northern Levant but also Egypt, Arabia, and Greece. They also explore the contributions of each people group or culture to our understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

This supplementary text is organized by geographic region, making it especially suitable for the classroom and useful in a variety of Old Testament courses. Approximately eighty-five illustrative items are included throughout the book.

• Contents
• Introduction by Bill T. Arnold and Brent A. Strawn
• The Amorites by Daniel E. Fleming
• Assyria and the Assyrians by Christopher B. Hays with Peter Machinist
• Babylonia and the Babylonians by David S. Vanderhooft
• Ugarit and the Ugaritians by Mark S. Smith
• Egypt and the Egyptians by Joel M. LeMon
• The Hittites and the Hurrians by Billie Jean Collins
• Aram and the Arameans by K. Lawson Younger Jr.
• Phoenicia and the Phoenicians by Christopher A. Rollston
• Transjordan: The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites by Joel S. Burnett
• Philistia and the Philistines by Carl S. Ehrlich
• Persia and the Persians by Pierre Briant
• Arabia and the Arabians by David F. Graf
• Greece and the Greeks by Walter Burkert†